This year’s Call of Duty game will not have a traditional single-player campaign. Although, to make up for it, developer Treyarch has stated that it will infuse narrative into the game’s other modes. The new Black Ops 4 zombies trailer focuses on some of that story in all of its time traveling absurdity with a decent glimpse at two of the game’s three different co-op campaigns.
The trailer follows Scarlett Rhodes and her journey to uncover the truth behind her father’s stories. Although initially believed to be lies, Rhodes and her crew quickly find themselves aboard the Titanc facing some sort of evil magic. This ends up turning the crew and passengers into zombies and other horrible beasts that storm the players as the ship sinks to its doom.
A magical staff then transports them from the Voyage of Despair campaign aboard the Titanic to the IX chapter in an Ancient Roman gladiatorial arena. Here, they are faced against regular zombies, giant gladiators, and, of course, an evil, zombified tiger. The trailer shows the connection between the Voyage of Despair and IX but does not show off Blood of the Dead, the third launch-day campaign. Blood of the Dead is a reimagined version of the Mob of the Dead zombies map from Call of Duty Black Ops 2.
This extended trailer gives a look at some of the weapons which run the gamut from fantastical melee weapons to more standard firearms. Lighting-filled hammers, giant shurikens, and a sword-and-blaster combo demonstrate how heavily the zombies mode is leaning into the realm of fantasy. The Call of Duty co-op modes have usually been silly tonal opposites from the gritty narrative campaigns, but the Black Ops 4 zombies mode looks to be taking that mentality to a whole new level.
Although it won’t contain the zombies mode, players can pre-order and get access to the private multiplayer beta in August. As has been the case in past years, PS4 owners will get the beta first on August 3 while PC and Xbox One owners wait until the following weekend to have their betas. Blackout, the game’s mysterious battle royale mode, will also be getting its own beta in September.
